Amazon Kicks Brooklyn Out Of The Country
C.W. was trying to order some king size Sharpie markers from Amazon, but all efforts were blocked when an error popped up saying that the item couldn’t be shipped to the selected address. Upon clicking on “Learn More” to do just that, Amazon explained that there were shipping restrictions for international orders on this item.
“I live in Brooklyn, NY,” writes C.W.
The last time we checked, Brooklyn does, in fact, reside within the confines of the United States of America.
But even a call to an Amazon customer service representative didn’t clear anything up — the rep confirmed the international shipping restrictions. When C.W. reminded her that Brooklyn isn’t an international destination, she said “she didn’t why there was a restriction but I couldn’t have it shipped to my address.”
The item is sold by Sharpie, which is headquartered in the U.S., so it would seem that would make it a domestic order through and through.
When I tried to replicate C.W.’s experience using my own Brooklyn address, I was able to complete the transaction with no trouble. I do, however, live in a different neighborhood and zip code than C.W., so perhaps Amazon only considers some neighborhoods to be outside the boundaries of the U.S.
C.W. wrote an email to Amazon last night, and let us know after we’d posted this story that he received a reply acknowledging that the error had been a computer glitch. Which means all those hipsters who were happy to secede from the mainland are now sorely disappointed.
And he’ll get those markers after all: Amazon said he can order them another vendor, and receive a store credit for the price difference.
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